History of Nature Painting in America-- Art Wolf blog

theArtWolf.com - Art and the art world Check out Art Wolf's blog for a nice collection of paintings in nature.

Enjoy...

TSC

Abrupt Climate Change This Century? Discussion by Scientists @ USGS

EarthForum Archive DiscussionCentral: Abrupt Climate Change This Century?

Key findings:

* Climate model simulations and observations suggest that rapid and sustained September arctic sea ice loss is likely in the 21st century.

* The southwestern United States may be beginning an abrupt period of increased drought.

* It is very likely that the northward flow of warm water in the upper layers of the Atlantic Ocean, which has an important impact on the global climate system, will decrease by approximately 25–30 percent. However, it is very unlikely that this circulation will collapse or that the weakening will occur abruptly during the 21st century and beyond.

* An abrupt change in sea level is possible, but predictions are highly uncertain due to shortcomings in existing climate models.

* There is unlikely to be an abrupt release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, to the atmosphere from deposits in the earth. However, it is very likely that the pace of methane emissions will increase.

Nimbus Meridian ultra light pack for trip

Nimbus Meridian Ki

The Vapor Trail has more space for packing -- but no lid on top-- and few places to hang stuff on the outside, like camp shoes.

I am leaning toward to Nimbus. Any alternative recommendations for the JMT-- this would be a 30 lb max backpack.

TSC

Interfaith Leaders Sign Climate Change Manifesto of Hope

Interfaith Leaders Sign Climate Change Manifesto of Hope Leaders of faiths around the world gather and publish a climate manifesto to cut carbon.

Membership List (chronological)

Membership List (chronological)

Darwin's Living Legacy--Evolutionary Theory 150 Years Later: Scientific American

Darwin's Living Legacy--Evolutionary Theory 150 Years Later: Scientific American Summary of what we've learned since Darwin's discoveries 150 years ago/

Another great piece from Scientific American. Read on. Subscribe!

Best fishes,

Timothy

Darwin | I think... at AMNH

Darwin | American Museum of Natural History I think!

Bob Ostertag: Why Gay Marriage is the Wrong Issue

Bob Ostertag: Why Gay Marriage is the Wrong Issue

Get right to the point. We want equal rights for all. Obama and I line up on this point. I would rather Obama picked someone different than Rick Warren to pray for America -- how about adding Dalai Llama or someone like him being added to elaborate on "many voices joining together as one theme?

But I think the gay marriage uproar is a distraction right now. Read the story above and see what you think.

TSC

Fashion Police About To arrest Obama / BBC NEWS Obama's Green Dream

BBC NEWS | The Reporters | Richard Black Good summary of the opportunities new leadership from Obama will bring.

The reporter from BBC seems to have a fair assessment of the prospects for green political shifts -- and summarizes the key places for change coming soon to a political theater near you.

This is just random note, but Whassup with every President playing golf?

Fashion police will be making arrests if the creamy shirts on coffee color skin keep showing up in President Elect's golf wardrobe.

Seems like the Mighty O should talk with Tiger Woods about color schemes to wear when out on the greens. Skip the creamy colors brother B, and follow the lead of a Master.

Ace's Wild! Amateur dreams up way to curb warming of planet | Seattle Times Newspaper

Nation & World | Amateur dreams up way to curb warming of planet | Seattle Times Newspaper This is going to solve climate crisis -- or some creative burst like it.

We have a right to be really worried about climate changing rapidly in our lifetime. But we discount the tremendous force of creativity to solve our biggest problems.

Since there are so many of us, I am optimistic we'll collectively think of something.

Best fishes,

Timothy

Labor Secretary Solis - Hope Amid the Gloom -NYT Opnion by Bob Herbert

Op-Ed Columnist - Hope Amid the Gloom - NYTimes.com Bob Herbert writes so well and moves from one paragraph to the next with such ease, it masks the work involved to make the case for workers succinctly as he does.

Labor Secretary Solis will be a welcome shift left in a department that has been MIA for too long.

I could go on -- but please consider reading the source directly. I consider William Safire and Bob Herbert to be two of the best writers in the NYT. Unfortunately, Safire isn't on the Op Ed any more.

We have poor cousins slumming in Safire's place as conservative commentariat -- hacks who puffed up their jobs writing press releases for mean spirited right wingers. William Kristol is first on my list -- an Iraq war pimp who gets political cover by being published in the NYT.

We'll see if there is justice in this world -- if Bush and Cheney and some of their media pimps who ginned up this war on Iraq -- an unprovoked war wasting lives and money. My guess is it will take a while.

Meanwhile, Obama's steady hand is already cause for hope, and the attention working people will get -- up from 0 will help us all in the next few years. Glad to know Solis at Labor comes from working class roots and has been active in helping people organize.

Acclaimed Colombian Institution Has 4,800 Books and 10 Legs - NYTimes.com

Acclaimed Colombian Institution Has 4,800 Books and 10 Legs - NYTimes.com Marvelous story about a man and his wife who started a library-- on his donkey in rural Columbia. Imagine giving your life to such a cause. Every week Luis Soriano takes books with him by donkey to loan to villagers miles from his home.

His lending library has grown to 4800 books - and he does all this on $350 a month. That's his income for the month for him and his wife, not what he makes as a librarian.

There ought to be some gifts from the States to make his day, don't you think?

How would I get him some Good Nature posters and a check as a gift for his good works?

Any ideas?

The subtext of this story is the healing, transformative gift of words. In the midst of a country ravaged by war, drug dealers, thugs and thieves, people still make their effort.

I am reminded of the end of D.H. Lawrence's "Terra Ingcognita:

" and eyes so soft
softer than the space between the stars,
and all things, and nothing, and being and not-being
alternately palpitant,
when at last we escape the barbed-wire enclosure
of Know Thyself, knowing we can never know,
we can but touch, and wonder, and ponder, and make our effort
and dangle in a last fastidious fine delight
as the fuchsia does, dangling her reckless drop
of purple after so much putting forth
and slow mounting marvel of a little tree."

by D.H. Lawrence



Best fishes,

Timothy

TED: Thinking about our need to be creative w Ken Robinson

UN defends carbon-trading scheme from US criticism | csmonitor.com

UN defends carbon-trading scheme from US criticism | csmonitor.com

"White Fir" -- a Poem by Poet Sam Green

For Donald Hall

Near the woodshed a white fir,
bent under snow
nearly to the ground
stays bowed,
even after the thaw.
The woods are full
of trees like this--cedar, hemlock, yew.

Year after year it happens,
the awful
weight, more, almost
than can be borne,
& then a lifetime struggling
upright again, drawn
by whatever light still filters
through the heavy canopy
of all those gone before.

"White Fir in Snow" ©2008 by Washington Poet Laureate Sam Green; from his book, The Grace of Necessity, Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2008.

In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide - NYTimes.com

In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide - NYTimes.com Read and help them out. Solidarity with working people who are left in the dirt unless a demand is made.

The banks get a bailout. The big corporations get bailouts. When do working people who make the corporations profits get help? When do working people who stay indebted to the bank's company store (now called a credit card) get bailed out?

BBC NEWS | Americas | Peru aims for zero deforestation

BBC NEWS | Americas | Peru aims for zero deforestation

Daily Kos: Tell Washington D.C. - Restore the Constitution - Restore the Rule of Law

Daily Kos: Tell Washington D.C. - Restore the Constitution - Restore the Rule of Law

nov. 27/08: Urban Roof Garden Design � system.five

nov. 27/08: Urban Roof Garden Design system.five

Amidst Deepening Recession, Green Fights Back - CoStar Group

Amidst Deepening Recession, Green Fights Back - CoStar Group

The Work of an Outsider

The Work of an Outsider

A Study in Green Architectural Design - California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco | The Chic Ecologist

A Study in Green Architectural Design - California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco | The Chic Ecologist